John M
Hi Johnboy59.
All of the above advice is both wise and true.
For the record, currently the Australian Prospective Marriage Visa (Subclass 300) costs $7,850 and lists processing times of ’[I]75% of applications within 24 months and 90% within 28 months’ [/I]and the money is not refundable if the visa is refused, as it most certainly would be for a couple who have never met.
It is also highly likely that the COVID border and consulate closures will have caused a massive application backlog that will have substantially increased the waiting times mentioned above.
The application is complex and requires extensive proof of a ‘[I]genuine and continuing relationship[/I]’ between two people who have ‘[I]met face to face as adults since turning 18' [/I]including, among many other things, two statutory declarations (Form 888) from independent witnesses who must detail their knowledge of the couple’s relationship so, as someone mentioned above, the days of mail-order internet brides are long gone and this visa is not an option for you.
Even tourist visas are almost impossible to get in normal non-COVID times (a clue lies in the fact that the application form is 14 pages long).
My (mature) girlfriend applied not long before COVID struck and despite having sufficient savings, a letter from her employer and substantial financial support proof from myself was refused a visa on the grounds of ‘[I]Insufficient incentive to return to Indonesia[/I]’. (The decision cannot be challenged by the way and the cost is also not refunded).
Subsequent research indicated that ‘sufficient incentive to return’ at a minimum would usually include owning, not renting, property and holding a higher level job rather than, as my girlfriend was, ‘just’ a waitress in a restaurant (and apparently having a ‘rich’ boyfriend in Australia is also considered a disincentive - obvious with hindsight).
The consensus about your situation therefore seems to be:
Marriage or cohabitation in Australia is not a realistic option.
If you are retired or financially independent then marriage or cohabitation in Bali is a realistic option but not in the near future.
You will need to wait until Australia opens up for outward bound travel, probably early 2022 (learn some Bahasa Indonesia while you’re waiting - DuoLingo is good and free), get a suitable visa then come to Bali for several months and see what happens after the FaceTime fantasy morphs into day-to-day reality as all fantasies surely do.
Good luck and have patience - patience in abundance is an absolute necessity in Indonesia :)
hca
Hello Johnyboy59,
considering your current inquiry, I am wondering what unit of measure the 59 is?
My humble opinion, experience whatever, totally irrelevant but a bit different to most here, but
Back in 2004? I took my upper management down for a month as tourist, we had been preparing reams of stuff for a married visa of which there were 4 variants that cost was around 2400 skippy pesos plus a couple of years health insurance and her right ear. So we had a heap of material ready, I was tied up with the sand cartel in Singapore at the time, so we applied there. Easy, in 3 days its ready, however the word on forums was its very difficult but I had the impression many of them who failed did not really supply all the requested items required with the application. The general consensus was that if you struck out on the first try it it became harder next time. Thats the first hint.. Already I had been out for there for 15ish years, so by that time so I was a bit street wise.
As somebody already mentioned Au immigration seem to have a prevailing view that all Indo women are hookers, I cant explain why, but Asian girls can go there and pick fruit but not sell fruit, maybe these blokes have some personal issue with she indoors at home, maybe they have money in the game there and a frightened of the potential losses to such opposition. Whatever, that view has prevailed for at least 20 years. So there the second hint of what you are up against.
2006, we went back again, this time for 3 months, visas obtained in Bali but also easy as before. But, options with land there, a country girl from here is full of ideas with the old farm, but at every turn, can't do that here, next, no not that anymore either! Not deterred she has more ideas and suggestions, but all sorts of permits, standards, astronomical costs, nope, I said forget it, lets head home to Bali and forget the whole thing, there's no way I could live in what this place has become anyway. 3rd, hint the redtape environment folks there regard as normal will be foreign to her.
I must state all of my generation there are gone, and I went back 2 home times since, last was 10 years ago. Aeroplanes are great, they leave the place at 500 miles an hour. But there was another important reason for dropping the idea, I worked with a lot of EU guys at that time and quite a few took Asian wives of various nationalities home, all very happy but hubby still had to work, either in the the office or fly off for a month at a time again. New wife is sat there in a different culture, at home alone. She speaks the new language ok, but with an accent that no body can there follow so well, and I add to that Aussies are dumber with accents the Europeans, countrywomen are few and far between, people there have little clue of life anywhere else so they dont get the gist of what she talks about from home, its all novel and unfathomable. Plus they don't give a shit anyway after a few minutes. The TV is crap and pretty quick she is bored to death at home alone a lot of the time. She misses her family, it tears her apart inside, the freedoms of life, the village lifestyle, she crys alone, then she only know 33 degrees by day down to 23 at 4am, half of the year its too hot for her and the other half its too bloody cold. 4th.
I guess by now you know where I am going with this.... The relation ship fails a lot of the time .. And these were solid couples before they moved, the wives mostly had lived abroad following their husbands to projects for months at a time, not Bali village or DPS locals girls who might not have even left the island.
Hints to facts.
Step forward 20 years, you have more licenses, permits, pieces of paper, fines, bylaws and rules and BB in you life there than you ever had, the only thing you can do for free and with out some piece of paper there now is fart. The costs have gone through the roof and the visa deal is harder to get approved as some posters here have already written, also most locals here can not leave right now unless they are going to approved work with all the appropriate supporting paperwork. 100 AUD tickets to Perth or Darwin from here will only be seen again in history books, let alone the fact normal people cant get in or out of AU anymore, then 2 weeks locked in a hotel room or what ever they do there at great expense. Also the cops out in the streets have either become medial profesionals or hoodalums.
Now there is the cv19 fiasco down there to contend with, who in their right mind would leave a life here to get on a plane and go there now?? The joints become an International joke, we don't have any of that carry on up here what ever bulldust they might say about the place on your crooked media, although its been a while since the village chook fights were stopped and you still see some people heading down to town with masks at half mast.
Coming this way to meet first is recommended but ts not easy to get in here right now either, even if you ever escape Alcatraz, there are only 3 classifications to get entry here right now according to a bloke with land down the road who works for immigration and your not likely to fit one of them. So how the Russians getting in someone mentioned do, is a mystery to me too.
You cant just pluck a girl out of here and take her down there, its chalk and cheese. Its just toooo different, you dont understand the quality of life your asking her to give up for the shitty deal your offering. It will take more than your 59 cubits to make up the difference.
I will go where angels fear to tread because I have never been an angel. Truly mate, calm down on this, do the cold shower thing, donate sperm, what ever rattles your dags. Wait till this cv19 thing blows over and the global insanity that's going on either comes to a head or dissipates. Yes people have managed to do what you propose but not for a while now and its a hard act to follow at best of times.
Spend the time finding out how to go about it in the easiest way, start with getting the migration forms and fact sheets, sound out a few immigration agents there as much as you can with out a bill. They probably have spare time now while getting ready to deal with the young Afghan blokes heading down to operate and guard all those new quarantine centers BB has suddenly found the need to build all over the place after 18 months of doing SFA. Ask more questions as you learn, come up here if you survive the a fore mentioned, meet up with her here and see how it goes and then take it from there.
And I forgot bring money, lots of it, count on enough for a new car, a few motorbikes, a couple of small house rebuilds, plus what you need for your self. And if your worried about the local hooch, money enough to build a decent still. Because you can do that here.
H.
PS No online sex stuff on the FO social media in the meantime, you will distract the feds reading it from their most important work.
